Project Lead – Woman Farmer Project (Upcoming)
Reports to: Projects Lead
Location: Mumbai / Remote (with travel)
Employment Type: Full Time
Duration: Until December 2026
Role Overview
The Locavore is a platform working to build a more equitable and sustainable food system in India. Through storytelling, community initiatives, and grassroots partnerships, we deepen public understanding of where food comes from and who grows it. Our work increasingly includes long-term projects rooted in community collaboration—bringing together farmers, researchers, artists, and civil society organisations to explore food as a lens into ecology, livelihoods, culture, and climate.
The Woman Farmer Project (upcoming) is a storytelling and community engagement initiative exploring the realities, knowledge, and leadership of women farmers across India. Despite playing a central role in agriculture, women farmers often remain largely invisible in policy, media, and public imagination. The project brings together grassroots organisations, storytellers, and community partners to document these experiences and create spaces for dialogue, reflection, and learning. It includes a storytelling fellowship across multiple regions, collaborations with community partners, editorial stories published through The Locavore, and community screenings and conversations. The project also seeks to document a replicable model for ethical collaboration between storytellers and social movements.
The fellowship and fieldwork will take place between May and August 2026, with editorial publication, public engagement, and distribution continuing through December 2026.
The Project Lead will steward the Woman Farmer Project from planning through execution, ensuring alignment across storytelling, community engagement, and grassroots partnerships while working closely with The Locavore’s leadership and editorial team. This role sits at the intersection of storytelling, community collaboration, and project management. The Project Lead will coordinate with fellows, collaborators, and multiple internal teams at The Locavore—including Editorial, Digital, Partnerships, and Operations—to ensure the project unfolds coherently across all verticals. They will oversee timelines, partnerships, budgets, and documentation while ensuring the work remains grounded in its ethical commitments to the communities represented. Travel to partner regions and fellowship locations may be required during key phases of the project.
More details about the project will be provided to the shortlisted candidates.
Key Responsibilities
Project Stewardship
Hold the overall vision and coherence of the project across regions, formats, collaborators, and timelines
Ensure alignment between storytelling, community engagement, and grassroots partnerships
Coordinate closely with Editorial, Digital, Partnerships, and Operations teams at The Locavore to ensure smooth collaboration across project components
Project Planning
Translate the project’s action plan into a detailed operational roadmap with clear milestones
Track progress across phases including fellowship, storytelling production, editorial publication, and community engagement
Anticipate risks and adapt timelines where required
Ensure all key outputs are delivered within the grant period while supporting editorial and engagement outcomes through December 2026
Collaboration and Partnership Management
Lead onboarding, alignment, and ongoing coordination with:
Grassroots partners in each geography
Training and mentorship partners
Community distribution and engagement partners
Build and maintain strong working relationships with partners across regions
Draft and manage MoUs with partners and ensure work progresses in line with agreed commitments
Maintain clear communication and accountability across collaborators
Fellowship Stewardship
Oversee the fellowship programme and ensure fellows are supported with care and clarity
Coordinate onboarding and orientation
Work closely with the editorial team to organise training sessions, mentorship, and story development
Establish regular check-in systems with fellows
Act as a point of escalation for concerns related to safety, consent, or ethical dilemmas during fieldwork
Ensure fellows’ well-being throughout the project
Editorial Coordination
Work closely with The Locavore’s editorial team to support the operational aspects of storytelling production
Coordinate timelines, fieldwork logistics, and communication between fellows, editors, and collaborators
Help ensure editorial storytelling aligns with the project’s goals and timelines
Community Engagement and Distribution
Oversee planning and execution of community-facing engagements including screenings, listening sessions, and facilitated discussions
Coordinate with distribution partners to ensure circulation is contextual, accessible, and meaningful to the communities represented
Work with Editorial and Digital teams to support the public dissemination of stories and related content
Organise three Beyond the Plate sessions as part of the project’s broader public engagement
Budget Management
Manage the overall project budget in coordination with TL’s operations team.
Ensure transparent and fair allocation of resources across collaborators, fellows, and partners.
Monitor expenses across regions and adjust allocations where necessary while staying within the grant budget
Documentation and Learning
Oversee documentation of project processes, collaboration models, challenges, and learnings
Track project milestones and maintain structured records of project activities
Collect feedback from fellows, collaborators, and partners
Contribute to reflections and documentation that support broader learning from the project
Funder Communication
Act as the primary point of contact between the funder and The Locavore team
Coordinate reporting, updates, and participation in cohort check-ins
Contribute to case studies, reports, and shared learning outputs required by the funder
Candidate Attributes
We are looking for someone who is:
Deeply interested in food systems and rural livelihoods: Curious about agriculture, ecology, and the realities shaping farming communities across India
Comfortable working across communities and institutions: Able to build trust with grassroots organisations while coordinating with editors, partners, and funders
Organised and proactive: Comfortable managing multiple moving parts across regions, timelines, and collaborators
A thoughtful communicator: Able to navigate sensitive conversations and maintain clarity across diverse stakeholders
Grounded in ethical storytelling practices: Aware of the responsibilities involved in documenting lived experiences
Adaptable and calm in complex situations: Able to anticipate challenges and navigate uncertainty in field-based projects
Growth Opportunities
- Shape the collective voice of a growing grassroots food movement
- Build expertise in community documentation and movement storytelling
- Lead larger editorial or communications initiatives within LFC as it scales
- Evolve into a senior community storytelling or communications leadership role
Experience & Skills
4–7 years experience in project management, journalism, cultural initiatives, or community programmes
Experience working with grassroots organisations, social movements, or rural communities
Experience coordinating multi-stakeholder projects across regions
Strong communication and writing skills
Ability to manage timelines, partnerships, and budgets simultaneously
Comfort working across editorial, community, and institutional contexts
Familiarity with ethical storytelling, participatory research, or community-led documentation practices is a plus
To apply now, fill the form here
Deadline: March 16
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